e-Petition: Let’s Get Every Young Heart Screened (Age 10-35)

We call on the National Assembly for Wales to ask the Welsh Government to roll out a heart screening programme to all young people between 10 and 35 in Wales. Hundreds die each year in Wales from an undiagnosed heart condition and a simple ECG will identify most cardiac abnormalities so that conditions can be managed effectively.

Heart screening sessions involve a short 5-10-minute test which is quick and painless and able to detect most heart abnormalities and could save hundreds of lives in Wales. In the Veneto region of Italy, where heart screening programme has been undertaken for 25 years the number of young athletes, male and female, dying of sudden cardiac arrest fell from one in 28,000 each year to one in 250,000, according to a 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.